Your hotel website is the core element of your hotel’s online visibility. It is the pillar of your digital marketing strategy that allows you to distribute your hotel directly.  An analysis of the visitors’ behavior on your hotel website enables you to identify the strong and weak points of the latter in order to optimize your online acquisition strategy.  Having a website is good but following its performance is better: your website is alive, it must evolve according to your hotel activity. It is a question of optimizing it regularly in order to meet the current technical requirements (Google rules, GDPR, organic referencing, etc.) as well as the expectations of Internet users in order to convert them into customers.   What is a KPI?KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are figures that allow you to measure the effectiveness of your website, a marketing campaign, etc. They also help you to make the necessary adjustments to reach the online goals you have set beforehand.  You will find some of these KPIs in your Google Analytics account. KPIs are monitored on a daily basis and compiled in detailed dashboards, called reports. The KPIs to analyze depend above all on the goals you have set for yourself, as well as on the digital marketing strategy you want to implement. To help you get started, here are 8 KPIs to monitor the performance of your hotel website.   KPIs to measure and analyze your web traffic Number of sessions on the website The number of visitors to your hotel’s website reflects its traffic and popularity. No traffic, no bookings. This information allows you to deduce the share of recurring visitors and to identify if visitors are seduced by your website. You will also be able to know if you are attracting new customers. For Google Analytics, a session is the period during which a user is active on your website. By default, if a user is inactive for at least 30 minutes, any future activity is attributed to a new session. Users who leave your website and come back within 30 minutes are part of the same session. Engagement rate or bounce rate The bounce rate is a key indicator to understand the behavior of a user on your website. This percentage tells you how many visitors have left your hotel’s website only after arriving (or not) on your website without interacting with it! The reasons for a high bounce rate are often recurrent: The loading time is too slow: visitors leave a website if the loading time is too long.  The website is not optimized for mobile browsing: 65% of traffic is generated via mobile in 2022.  A website that is not HTTPS secure. An unqualified traffic  If your bounce rate is high, it’s worth looking into the cause and conducting a more in-depth analysis of your hotel’s website. You will then be able to better understand your situation and adapt your digital strategy to improve your website’s performance. In Google Analytics 4, you can find this information by going to Reports > Demographics > Demographics Overview.   KPIs to measure your bookings and sales Conversion rate The conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who have made a reservation on your website compared to the total number of visitors. It is essential to measure the propensity of your website to transform a visitor into a guest and therefore its efficiency in generating direct bookings. This is a fundamental element that must be taken into consideration when creating a website: it is about optimizing the user path in order to maximize the conversion rate. Other goals for a website can also be set: Send a contact form  Subscribe to a newsletter  Buy a gift box, etc. The above actions can all be considered as conversions, which is why their success depends on the goals set for your establishment’s website. Number of reservations and online sales generated Your hotel’s website is your main online sales tool and that is why you must absolutely follow the evolution of the turnover generated by your website. This performance indicator validates your entire digital distribution.  Follow the number of bookings made directly on your hotel’s website to adjust the associated marketing strategy according to the seasonality, the occupancy rate or the current offers for example. This indicator is correlated to your direct revenue share.  The online revenue compared to the revenue generated by your website will tell you the volume of direct sales. This gives you a first indication of how well your website is performing. It is also a very good way to quickly compare your current (online) sales situation with your past and future goals.  Cost of acquisition per booking The cost of acquisition per booking is the total of media and marketing investments needed to obtain a booking in your hotel.  To know the cost of acquisition per booking, you need to break down each element of your marketing strategy. This means dividing the cost of the marketing budget deployed over a given period by the number of bookings over that same period. It is also important to know the source of digital acquisition for each booking (natural referencing, paid search, metasearch, social ads, display ads, etc.). You will find most of these sources in Google Analytics. The cost of acquisition per booking is a key performance indicator that allows you to: Track the performance of the different campaigns. Identify and select the most profitable marketing channels.  Allocate more budget to the most efficient channels in order to maximize the return on investment. Therefore, knowing this cost allows you to better manage the marketing of your online hotel rooms, by measuring the effectiveness of your marketing and sales actions. Average booking basket The average booking basket is an essential KPI because it represents what each customer spends on average on your website. Increasing your average basket is one of the most effective ways to increase your revenue. Indeed, by increasing the value per customer, you can absorb higher acquisition costs per booking while maintaining your profits or simply increase your ROI.  In order to calculate your average basket over a given period, you need to divide your revenue by the number of bookings. As with the cost per booking ratio, it is useful to compare the different channels to identify the most profitable ones.  This indicator allows you to better understand your customers’ buying habits and to adjust your pricing strategy.  In the hotel industry, we observe that the average purchase basket is higher on official hotel websites than on OTAs (online travel agencies). This represents a good comparison base between your average basket and the OTAs’ for your hotel.     KPIs to measure the relevance of your content Time spent per page The time spent per page by a visitor allows you to evaluate the relevance of the information delivered on each page. The longer a traveler stays on your pages, the more likely they are to book with you directly.  Your rooms page is the most visited and the most important to market your hotel. The amount of time spent on it by visitors tells you how attractive the page is and how interesting your offers are. If there is one page to monitor, it is this one.  Avoid adding too much text to your website, convey emotions to your customers by being clear, concise and impactful. You can break up your text into paragraphs with headings to make it easier to read. The choice of quality images to show your hotel in its best light is also essential.  Average time per session The average time per session is the average amount of time a visitor spends on your website, i.e. the total duration between arrival and departure (bounce) from your website. The calculation is as follows: addition of the time spent on the visited pages, divided by the number of visits.  This tells you the overall relevance and retention level of your website. In principle, the longer a traveler stays on your website, the more likely he will book with you.  However, in Google Analytics, this data, just like the time spent per page, remains imprecise because it does not always take into account the time spent on the last page. The analysis of your reports must therefore take this limitation into account.   Conclusion With these 8 KPIs, you will be able to know if your hotel’s website is effective with a certain level of detail. This makes it easier for you to decide whether to adjust your digital strategy based on your website’s strengths and weaknesses.  Keep in mind that all these figures work together. An in-depth analysis of your website is often necessary if you are intrigued by any of the data.  To learn more about increasing direct revenue and creating a successful hotel website, contact our digital hotel marketing specialists.

In the wake of the COVID pandemic, hotel operators are facing intense pressure to mitigate rising labor costs while still providing exemplary customer service. While operators have always been sharply focused on labor costs as a line item on the expense report, the current economic climate will shape the way hotel companies build their teams for years to come. According to a May 2022 AHLA survey, 97% of hotels indicated they are experiencing a staffing shortage, 49% severely so. Survey respondents indicated they had hired an additional 23 employees per property in the last three months but were also trying to fill an additional 12 positions. As operators search for solutions, many see the rising adoption of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) as a way to help bridge the gap, enabling leaner teams to get more done, faster.What Exactly is RPA? Robotic Process Automation brings together different data points, often housed in different applications or databases, to streamline and execute tasks or processes that can be accomplished by a software “robot,” rather than requiring human involvement. This typically results in substantial time, labor and cost savings, while freeing up employees to perform more critical high-touch functions. In hospitality, it can be applied in the front of house and back of house to streamline workflows and substantially reduce manual efforts. But its adoption has been slow. “When we think of AI and robotics being used in the medical field to detect and cure cancer, we applaud it, yet when we consider using AI, RPA, or physical robots to aid us in hospitality, we get nervous,” says Simone Puorto, former hotel GM founder of Travel Singularity, in a recent Hospitality Net report. “The misunderstanding is that we will lose the human touch when tech is introduced. Yet the human touch itself often creates problems and inefficiencies in the guest experience.” On the guest-facing side of the business, automation can be applied to virtually every touchpoint of the guest journey. Marketing automation comes in the form of upsell opportunities, re-marketing or recovery campaigns in the pre-stay, pre-check-in and post-cancellation stages. In the back of the house, automation is helping the marketing, revenue and sales departments get more done with fewer resources. Integrated CRM systems have become the heart of new, guest-centric personalization strategies such as automated email marketing programs that are proving to be huge time-savers. Revenue managers are tapping automation to stay on top of pricing and demand trends. RPA reduces the common challenges presented by running a business on a fragmented tech stack. Siloed systems often lead to a great deal of manual effort, such as copying, importing, exporting data from one system to another, or the common “swivel-chair integration.” Through RPA, operators can create workflows that fill feature gaps or replicate features from other systems, saving them time and money.Examples of RPA in Hospitality Today Native CRS, CRM and RMS applications provide SHR with unique access to highly actionable data to build tailored workflows for each operator’s individual needs. Several SHR hotel partners are currently using RPA to remove previously manual tasks. In many cases, they’re automating the data sharing between systems, where processes inevitably break. So far, RPA is providing the most value in the following five categories: Business Intelligence, Marketing Automation, Operations and Support, Revenue Management and Reputation Management. For example, one partner offers attractive rates to guests that book ahead and pay 50% upfront. In this scenario, the guest’s credit card on file is charged the remaining 50% a handful of days before arrival. Because many guests don’t track when the remaining balance will be withdrawn, their credit card will sometimes come back declined. Prior to implementing RPA, a call center representative was addressing these denials each night – often dozens – through a manual process of copying, pasting and composing emails to guests. Since, the hotel operator has defined the proper workflow and SHR has built an automated process to remove human intervention. Other automated workflows that have been deployed today include functionality around abandoned cart re-marketing​, upselling, and sharing call center messaging data. In the Hospitality Net report, Puorto identifies additional real-world examples of automation directly leading to labor savings:Pre-qualifying group sales RFPs requires around 60 person-hours per month. By automatizing the task, an average hotel can generate additional revenue due to faster response time, while drastically reducing labor costs. Managing rate codes in PMSs and GDSs requires around 100 person-hours per year. The application of RPA can increase accuracy, reduce errors down to zero, and generate recovered revenue. Daily revenue reporting can take up to 1,000 person-hours per year. Therefore, on top of producing more precise reporting, the use of RPA can save labor costs.Tip of the Iceberg As you see in the examples above, RPA is not a lofty, unattainable goal for hoteliers. It’s saving  considerable time and money for operators today, but we’ve just cracked the surface in terms of the ways automation will shape the future of hotel operations. To get where we need to be, hoteliers and technology solutions providers must work together to prioritize innovation. “I don’t think it’s hard for hotels to grasp the opportunities that automation offers – I think it’s hard for them to have confidence that the technologies they select for their tech stack will work together the way they expect, and not create more problems than they solve,” Kathryn Murphy, owner of The Murphy Gallery & Hotel in Dublin, told Hospitality Net. While systems have been trying to accomplish some of these tasks for years, we feel there has been a holistic shift in the way businesses are approaching modern integration strategies. Open APIs and cloud technology are paving the way, and in general there is less finger-pointing and more true partnerships among suppliers and hoteliers. Hoteliers must get back to providing the personalized service our industry is known for, and accelerating the adoption of Robotic Process Automation will provide the framework moving forward.   By Angelo Directo, VP Design and Innovation at SHR

50% of Google searches involve a click to a sponsored link. Paid search is essential to reach and convert qualified travelers directly on your website, via Google ads for example.  For your SEA campaigns, it’s all about bidding on the right keywords in order to appear in the best positions when someone searches for your hotel. The keywords are related to your establishment, your destination and what makes your hotel unique. In this article, we look at the paid search strategies you can implement to increase your traffic and direct bookings.What is Search Engine Advertising (SEA)? SEA campaigns Search Engine Advertising (SEA), or paid referencing, consists in buying sponsored links on search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, with a keyword targeting.  The SEA campaigns are advertisements that precisely target Internet users according to several criteria, such as their browsing history, their location, the medium used, their demographic data, etc.   For hoteliers, these campaigns such as Google Ads are interesting because you will generate more qualified traffic on your website.  Types of SEA campaigns and their advantages The advantage of a paid search campaign is the increase of your hotel’s immediate visibility on search engines. The SEA also allows you to qualify the traffic on your website to acquire new prospects. Ultimately, raising the popularity of your hotel among a qualified audience of travelers allows you to increase your direct sales and compete with OTAs.  There are three types of campaigns that fulfill three distinct goals: Brand protection: it is about positioning yourself on your hotel name. It is a strategy that consists in protecting your brand name against those who bid on it, such as competitors or OTAs. These campaigns are highly profitable, because you capture highly qualified Internet users in active search. Generic: the goal of a generic campaign is to acquire new customers by increasing the awareness of your establishment in your destination and/or your attributes. It consists of bidding on broader keywords such as “Hotel Berlin” or “Hotel with Spa in Paris”. This type of campaign will allow you to appear at the top of the Google results page (SERP), with travelers in the search phase of their accommodation, at the beginning of the purchase process. Display: This type of campaign corresponds to ad banners that appear on selected websites or partner websites of the search engine. Display campaigns can be used for remarketing or to develop your hotel’s reputation.In this article, we will focus on the first two types of campaigns.How to set up a SEA campaign? To start, if you don’t have one already, you need to create a Google Ads account. This is a free tool from Google that allows you to create your campaigns, track performance, optimize campaigns, etc. It is a very complete and technical tool, which requires some expertise.  Then, you have to link your Google Ads account to your hotel website’s Google Analytics account to be able to track your campaigns. Define your goals and your strategy In order to launch an effective campaign, you need to define your strategy based on the needs and goals you have set for your hotel.  If you choose a brand protection strategy, you need to bid on the keywords corresponding to your hotel’s name and the specific lexical field of your brand. In particular, it will be more relevant to use an “exact phrase” or “exact keyword” strategy than “broad match” keywords. If you choose to run a generic SEA campaign, you need to conduct a study to find the most relevant keywords. There are several tools to do this research: Google Ads – Keyword planning tool: you can notably enter the url of your website or one of its pages, then you click on “Find new keywords” and Google produces a suggestion of generic keywords according to your website and your sector. You also have the possibility to check if the demand (search volumes) is present for one or more keywords on which you wish to be positioned. Google Search Console: allows you to know the words that people have searched for, this gives an indication of what is searched for organically and therefore allows you to choose to bid on these keywords. Humans! The traffic manager in charge of the optimization of your campaigns, by his knowledge, analyzes the website of the hotelier and by his experience and expertise identifies the relevant keywords for your hotel.All these tools are complementary and, once the campaigns are launched, Google Ads constantly suggests new keywords thanks to the Google Insight tab to get market trends and forecasts.  Launch your search ads campaigns There are three steps left before launching your campaign: Write the ads copy, i.e. what the Internet user sees when he types the corresponding keyword. Define the overall budget, which is the total cost of the SEA campaign (broken down on an annual, monthly and/or daily basis)  Define the bidding method, i.e. the type of bidding (described in the next section) and the cost you are willing to pay for a bid within the global advertising campaign budget.Please note that you can add and target the audiences you want via different criteria (interests, age, gender, profession, etc.) to ensure you reach the best possible audience for your activity. This will allow you to refine your audience which will be more qualified and optimize your advertising campaign costs. Moreover, after a SEA campaign and following the analysis of its results, you can also do remarketing (or conversely, remarketing exclusion). For example, you can re-target visitors of your website who are interested in your establishment but did not book with you. You will appear in first position as soon as they search for your hotel name again or a hotel in your destination.What are the bidding methods for search ads? There are different types of bidding methods, especially on Google Ads, each with a specific purpose, benefit and use. The choice of the bidding method must be made for each keyword because each of them has its own cost. Depending on your SEA goals, you can of course apply the same bidding method to several keywords. Cost per click (CPC) The CPC is a manual bidding method, i.e. it is a person who defines it and not an algorithm.Benefit: you can control the bidding method as you wish, in a precise way.  Use: this bidding method is not really relevant anymore; at WIHP we only use it when launching a campaign, but not in the long run because there are new automatic bidding methods that optimize performance.Maximize conversions  This bidding method is automatic, i.e. the Google algorithm optimizes the bidding by itself. Benefit: after a learning phase, the algorithm spends all the allocated ads budget trying to have a maximum of conversions (according to the action defined as conversion, generally a room reservation). It is based on signals, user behavior (browsing history, Google profile, cookies, devices, times, geo-location, etc). For example, for campaign X, Google will recognize that the majority of users have booked on mobile, between 9 and 10 am and are men over 30. The algorithm will then optimize the campaign according to these criteria by increasing or decreasing the bidding method on each keyword. Use: At WIHP, we only use it for brand protection because it works very well. However, for generic campaigns, this strategy is less profitable, it spends too much budget because the keywords are too broad and therefore generate few conversions.Cost Per Action (CPA) Automatic bidding method where you define a cost per action, i.e. the price you are willing to pay for a conversion. Benefit: the algorithm will not necessarily spend the whole budget, the goal being to reach the target CPA. So if it can reach it without spending all the money, it does. Use: the goal is not to have the maximum number of conversions but to ensure profitability. We advise you to use it rather for a generic campaign in order not to spend too much and to reach a good ROAS (Return On Ad Spend). Our team of digital advertising specialists uses mainly these three bidding methods above but also the following complementary ones. Other SEA bidding methods Target impression rate: automatic bidding method where you define the rate of visibility you want to achieve via keywords. For example, during an event next to your hotel, you want to appear first on a query such as “Hotel festival de cannes”. Maximize clicks: this automatic bidding method works in the same way as “Maximize conversions”. Here, the Google algorithm will spend all the budget to have the most clicks and relevant traffic on your website. So it’s not the same conversion action or the same goal as “maximize conversions” but it still works the same. Maximize conversion value: again, this automatic bidding method works like “Maximize conversions”. The algorithm spends the entire budget to get the maximum revenue by targeting users who will convert with a high average cart. Return on ad spend (ROAS) target: this automatic bidding method works on the same principle as the “CPA target”. Here, it is a question of defining a target ROAS, i.e. we ask the algorithm to reach X ROAS (Sales / Investment). However, although optimized to achieve the best result, this bidding method does not guarantee you to reach your target ROAS.   What KPIs should I track to know if my SEA campaigns are working? Here are several KPIs that will show you the results of your paid search campaigns: Click-through rate (CTR) (clicks / impressions): determines the relevance of your ad. Depending on whether it is a generic or a brand protection campaign, the click-through rate will not be at the same standard. Indeed, generic campaigns generally obtain lower click-through rates because the associated keywords are broad and therefore more competitive. Impression share (number of appearances / number of searches): allows you to gauge the visibility and to know if your establishment appears well based on the searches. If your impression rate is too low, there is a shortfall, you should increase the bidding budget or change your bidding strategy, unless your goal is not to have a high visibility rate. Again, for generic campaigns, expect a lower rate (around 20% is ok). CPC: as the name suggests, the cost per click determines how much each click on your ad costs you. It is important to make sure that it is not too high. Conversion rate: percentage of visitors who have completed an action on your website (book a room, fill out a form, buy a gift box, etc.). The actions depend on the goals set for your website. Generally, when creating a website, the user path is optimized to maximize this rate. Conversion value: the conversion value corresponds to the turnover generated by the campaign or by the keyword, it can be followed at several levels (per month, per day, per market, etc.). Traffic volume: useful in the context of a generic campaign to know the number of visitors and see the evolution of the traffic. The goal is to attract new qualified visitors to your website. Therefore, you should look at this KPI associated with the volume of new visitors and the bounce rate (percentage of visitors who leave the website after consulting a single page and without taking any action). Each hotel has its own goals but the lower the bounce rate, the better. ROAS: determined according to the value of conversion compared to the costs, it is the return on investment of the campaign. You have to wait a month to see the results. At WIHP, we observe a minimum ROAS (return on investment) of x15 for brand protection and x4 for generic campaigns. To put it in terms of Cost of Sales (COS) i.e. the cost of distribution or commission equivalent, for brand protection: if you spend 10€ of media budget and the campaign generates 200€, then your COS is 5% (10/200 x100). Of course, every hotel is different and these figures may vary, they are just an indicator.The metrics to be monitored must correspond to the digital goals you have set for yourself, it is up to you to determine which ones are the most relevant to monitor. Moreover, the interpretation of the indicators and their associated results must be done according to the type of campaign, because you will not reach the same goals and results with a generic or a brand campaign. Conclusion  Developing an effective search ads strategy is essential to increase your visibility among qualified travelers. Therefore, paid search, notably via Google Ads, allows you to increase your direct revenues. You can choose to launch generic and brand protection campaigns. We recommend it because these two strategies are complementary and will maximize your visibility on search engines. Depending on the strategy adopted to reach your goals, we help you choose the keywords to bid on. The goal is to bid on the most relevant queries so that your hotel appears at the top of the search results. As a bonus, our Traffic Manager and Google Ads expert, gives you two extra tips: In your SEA campaigns, optimize the visibility of your brand: reach a minimum impression rate of 90% to be sure to get a maximum of direct bookings. On brand protection this rate is easier to reach than on generic campaigns, so don’t deprive yourself of it! When an SEA campaign is working well, don’t be afraid to add more budget. If possible, don’t restrict yourself when there is demand and conversions.In short, building and managing an effective SEA strategy is complex and time consuming. At WIHP, we help you set up your SEA campaigns, from defining the strategy to monitoring the results and managing the campaigns. You can thus increase your direct bookings while continuing to practice your core business: hotel management. Contact our team!  

Always in search of new ways to help you generate direct bookings, WIHP has launched a new option on Meta I/O: enabling Tripadvisor Sponsored Placements for independent hotels. Until now, that option was available only for hotel chains including a certain number of hotels.What are Sponsored Placements? Sponsored Placements are sponsored ads that allow you to put your hotel at the top of the results for a city search. For example, if your hotel is located in Paris, you can appear in the top spot for Paris hotel searches.When you search on Tripadvisor for a hotel in a specific city, the hotels with the “Sponsored” tag (see screenshot above) are the ones that use sponsored placements. This tool makes it possible for you to hold the top spot for the city where your hotel is located.  The Sponsored Placements tool is an opportunity for hotels to increase their visibility, showing it above your competitors. Tripadvisor’s Sponsored Placements are visible on desktop, tablet, and mobile platforms.That means travelers will have no trouble seeing your ads, no matter what device they use.  Sponsored Placements target travelers seeking a hotel like yours. Your ad will appear if the travelers’ criteria (location, services, etc.) correspond to your hotel’s features.How does it work? On Meta I/O, you now have the option to use Tripadvisor’s Sponsored Placement Ads feature.  We have added a new filter, “Ads Type” to the platform. You can find it here: To activate the Sponsored Placements option on Meta I/O, simply select “Sponsored Placement” in the “Ads Type” filter.  The results of your campaigns will be displayed with all the standard parameters, including ROAS. Tripadvisor sponsored ads are based on a cost-per-click model. That means the hotelier pays only when a traveler clicks on the booking engine, not on the hotel’s page on Tripadvisor.Your ads appear in travelers’ search results only if you have availability on the search dates. If your hotel has no rooms available for those dates, the sponsored ad won’t be shown to the traveler. Why use Tripadvisor Sponsored Placements? Here are 3 benefits to using Tripadvisor Sponsored Placements:Enjoy access to a qualified audience: Tripadvisor gets 455 million unique users each month, and 74% of travelers who book directly on a hotel’s website visit Tripadvisor at some point. Thanks to sponsored ads, you’ll increase the visibility of your establishment with a very qualified audience.Appear where travelers are searching: Sponsored ads appear at a high level on Tripadvisor, including at the top of search results, on the pages of local competitors, etc. Because they are available on multiple screens, an establishment using Sponsored Placements maximizes its chances of reaching potential guests.Display only your rates: On your Sponsored ads, only your hotel website direct rates are displayed. This gives you the opportunity of driving more direct bookings via your booking engine and winning as a distribution channel vs the OTAs. Increase your visibility: Sponsored ads appears on local competitors’ pages to ensure a higher visibility for your property and encourage direct bookings.How to optimize your performance on Tripadvisor Sponsored Placements To better manage and optimize your campaigns you need to track and understand your performance. Set your objectives and then build your campaigns accordingly. With Sponsored Placements, you have the ability to manage your budget and ad schedule to meet your goals.  This way, you target the right audience with ad placements at the top of the search results in your city and on your competitors’ pages. For example, your ads can be displayed on key dates or during low occupancy periods of your establishment. In addition, as mentioned above, they only appear when your hotel matches the search criteria and filters of travelers (dates, budget, cancellation policy, pool, parking, etc.). Sponsored Placements therefore allows you to promote your rates and the link to your website to generate more direct bookings and reduce the share of Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) in your revenue. Indeed, as for Google Property Promotion Ads, your ad is exclusive in the search results, your prices are not in competition with your distributors. When a user clicks on your ad, only your official rates appear, which brings great visibility to your hotel. Then, follow the performance of your Tripadvisor campaigns according to the goals you want to achieve. For this type of campaign, the main focus is to improve the visibility of your hotel and therefore indirectly increase direct bookings. Thus, the related KPIs are the impression rate and the conversion rate. It is up to you to create a reporting that corresponds to your goals.  To assist you in this process, you can use meta search management tools such as Meta IO. This allows you to establish the connection between the prices and availability of your establishment with the metasearch on which you want to appear. You will be accompanied in the optimization of your campaigns in order to obtain the best possible ROAS and to increase your direct bookings.    Alternatives to Sponsored Placements Other metasearch services also offer solutions to increase the visibility of your hotel in your destination: notably Property Promotion Ads (GHA) and Sponsored Listing (Trivago).  With Google Property Promotion Ads, hoteliers can display their hotels in strategic preferred locations to travelers. Depending on your bidding method, your property can appear in the first or second position of Google Maps, Google Hotel Search and the Google search results page.  This is particularly useful if you want to increase traffic in a selected geographical area, promote a new property or capitalize on successful hotels during peak season. Google Property Promotion Ads and Trivago Sponsored Listing campaigns allow you to offer your hotel rooms to new customers looking for a property in your destination. Google Property Promotion Ads on Google Travel / HotelsLaunched in 2020, Trivago Sponsored Listing is an advertising solution that works on a similar principle to Tripadvisor. Hotels can appear at the top of the organic results on a destination page to find new potential customers. The aim is to generate more impressions, clicks and direct bookings. Trivago’s sponsored ads promote the property by moving it to the top of Trivago’s destination search results page. This makes it the first ad on the results page, containing all the usual information about the hotel, including the hotel’s logo and tagline. In addition, the sponsored ad displays exclusively the advertiser’s hotel offer. This type of ad represents a competitive advantage for hoteliers to gain new customers and generate incremental revenue. It is important to promote your rooms on the same channels as your competitors to stay competitive.Conclusion Tripadvisor Sponsored Placements allows you to increase the visibility of your hotel directly to travelers interested in properties in your area. This solution gives you the opportunity to capture the demand for your destination.  These campaigns allow you to convince travelers to stay at your hotel rather than your competitor’s. In addition, this new solution from Tripadvisor helps you achieve a higher occupancy rate and earn additional revenue.  Ready to display your hotel with Tripadvisor sponsored ads? Contact our team of digital distribution specialists.

Whether you want to increase your hotel occupancy and generate more direct bookings or optimize your cost of guest acquisition, you need the right strategy to maximize your investment and the impact of your metasearch advertising  When it comes to hotel distribution, metasearch is gaining ground in the direct booking ecosystem. They allow hotels to increase their visibility and direct revenue, but only if you leverage them strategically.  We share some tips to help you define effective and profitable strategies for your campaigns on hotel price comparison sites.What are metasearch ? Metasearch are literally meta-search engines. They are tools that transfer users’ queries to other general search engines and aggregate the results into a single list.  In the context of the hotel industry, metasearch are price comparison sites. They compare hotel rates and room availability from different feeds to help Internet users looking for accommodation find their hotel at the best price from several booking sites. Price comparison services are meant to be beneficial for all parties involved: For the internet user or traveler, using metasearch means the ability to find and book available hotel rooms at the best rate more easily and in real time. For the hotelier, metasearch represents a direct distribution channel as well as a space to promote their hotel. The rates and rooms are visible to travelers who are looking for a hotel to stay at and they are redirected directly to the hotel’s booking engine.  The metasearch platform, which is paid according to a bidding method based on cost per click (CPC) or on performance (CPA, commission on guest stay).  What metasearch strategies should I choose for my hotel? Hotel metasearch campaign strategies are built around your goals, your competitors and your budget. They can vary greatly from platform to platform. Here we share some tips and tricks that you can apply to make your hotel advertising spend more profitable on price comparison sites.Optimize the booking journey of your hotel’s website Before you launch an advertising campaign via metasearch, make sure you have a website designed for travelers with a smooth booking experience. Your booking interface is the last page the traveler will see when making their buying decision. It is therefore essential that it is optimized for users who book, both on mobile and on desktop.  Be present on several metasearch Depending on your advertising budget, it can be interesting to appear on all metasearch to have a wider visibility. Don’t limit yourself to comparison sites such as Google Hotel Ads, Tripadvisor and Trivago. Explore other platforms like Kayak, Skyscanner or Bing Hotel Ads to attract a maximum of customers on various markets. Offer more attractive deals and prices Keep in mind that most customers go to price comparison sites to find the best deal. Some price comparison sites like Trivago and Google offer an advantageous position for the cheapest distributor, so you increase your visibility by offering a competitive rate. Indeed, the performance of your campaigns is better when you propose the best offer and if the lowest rate is from your official website. In the case of campaigns on metasearch engines, price parity is probably not the best strategic option. Adapt your strategies according to the metasearch Because not all metasearch work the same way, defining a single approach for all price comparison sites can be counterproductive. For example, a website like Tripadvisor generates a high volume of clicks because it is highly visited by travelers looking for a hotel in a given destination or for reviews related to the establishment they are trying to book.  It is therefore recommended to start with a low cost per click and to increase the bidding method progressively, until you find the right balance and obtain the best return on investment.  Moreover, the conversion rate is generally lower on mobile than on computer. Mobile is now more used for searching for a hotel but bookings are still mainly carried out on desktop. Note however, that this trend tends to be reversed. According to a study by Revenue Hub, on average in 2020, mobile bookings represented more than 27% of the total number of bookings and have increased to more than 40% in 2021.   How to be present on metasearch? Your hotel, hostel, appart’hotel, resort, camping, etc. must be listed on metasearch to benefit from their visibility. Having a listing is the first step that will allow you to be referenced on price comparison sites.  Today, the majority of properties have a listing on Google Business Profile, Tripadvisor, Trivago, etc. However, for new establishments, you must get in touch with the metasearch to list your establishment on the price comparison site. Be sure to identify the metasearch on which you want to be present and find out about their different registration procedures.   Once the hotel page is created, you must send the prices and availability (ARI) to the different metasearch. Once this step is done, you have to open the ads campaigns to appear on the metasearch. Finally, on Google Hotel Ads, your rates will appear directly in the Free Booking Links section, without having to launch a paid metasearch campaign. A Free Booking Link is a link you get free of charge, which shows your official rate and points directly to your website. Which metasearch generates the most bookings for hotels? The most used metasearch is Google Hotel Ads, Google’s hotel comparison site. It is followed by Tripadvisor and Trivago, in terms of traffic volume and bookings volume.  Alongside these three giants, other most profitable metasearch for hotels include the following price comparison sites:Microsoft Bing Hotel Ads Kayak Skyscanner Wego  How do I connect my hotel to metasearch? Being listed on metasearch is not enough, you also need to establish a connection between your hotel’s price comparison site and centralized reservation system (CRS) to manage and control the display of rates.  To create this connection between your website and the major metasearch engines, you need an integration partner. This partner will serve as a management platform between your CRS and the price comparison sites.  If you don’t know where to start, you can rely on WIHP as a specialized integration partner. Our Meta I/O integration tool allows you to connect, manage and distribute your hotel on the major metasearch from a single, easy-to-use interface.   What bidding methods are available? What pricing strategy should I adopt? The vast majority of metasearch engines use cost-per-click (CPC) compensation. The cost-per-acquisition (CPA) and commission-based models are more recent exceptions available Google Hotel Ads, Tripadvisor and Trivago. Discover quickly what makes these three bidding methods so distinctive. Cost per click (CPC) The cost-per-click or CPC is the most common bidding method. It consists of the hotelier paying a specific amount each time a user clicks on their offer in the list of rates on the metasearch page to be redirected to their hotel website.  In short, with CPC, each click generates a cost for your hotel and you only invest in the traffic that the ad on the price comparison site brings you. The more you bet, the more your price offer will be displayed at the top of the list of proposals suggested to travelers.    Cost per acquisition (CPA) This bidding method is similar to the commission-based system used by OTAs. Cost-per-acquisition involves the payment of a predefined commission rate in case of a booking. The percentage is calculated on the amount of the reservation when it has actually taken place.  Depending on the options, the meta-engine can offer instant booking on its page or redirect the user to your hotel’s official website. The CPA strategy is more secure, as you have a guaranteed fixed return on investment for your advertising.  Commission on guest stay This type of commission means that you will pay a percentage of the room price only for customers who have stayed with you. This bidding method allows you to declare the cancellations to be commissioned only on the reservations made. This model guarantees your distribution costs and ROAS (return on advertising investment).Finally, note that commission rates vary depending on the metasearch and the markets in which you sell your establishment. However, to achieve your goals, you can combine your bidding methods by market and/or metasearch.How do metasearch help me compete with OTAs? Metasearch are open platforms and OTAs use it to buy visibility for their hotel clients. It is therefore common for your rate offers to be displayed alongside those of the OTAs, in the list of hotel price comparison sites.  Meta engines offer hotels the opportunity to compete with large online travel agencies and increase their direct booking rate. Even just displaying your official website for reservation will get you more bookings. The best way to differentiate yourself is to offer a better rate with additional benefits (free breakfast, last minute offer, etc.). However, customers are attracted to the best offer and want to book at the best price; do not hesitate to offer your rooms at the best rate to be the most competitive.Does metasearch have a real impact on my hotel’s revenue? Metasearch accounts for up to 30% of a hotel’s direct bookings!  They improve the referencing of your hotel and give more visibility to your official price offers to help you optimize your conversion rate. All the benefits of using price comparison websites contribute directly and indirectly to the growth of your turnover.  With a presence on metasearch, you can greatly increase your traffic and your direct booking rate. Once a user clicks on your rates on your metasearch page, they are instantly redirected to the booking page of your website.  By increasing your visibility to travelers who are ready to book, and by redirecting these potential customers to your booking page, price comparison sites help increase your revenue. Typically, travelers arrive on your website with a strong intention to book. Therefore, you will most often receive highly qualified leads. How to determine if a campaign is successful? The success of a metasearch campaign is measured by the achievement of your campaign goals and the return on investment. There are several objectives to investing in metasearch advertising, such as:Get highly qualified direct traffic to optimize your customer acquisition cost. Increase your direct bookings and bypass OTAs. Optimize your hotel’s occupancy rate.You can consider your campaign successful when your goals are met and the advertising provides a positive ROI. Note that the ROI of metasearch campaigns can vary greatly depending on the search engine used, the time period and the goals. You need to be able to track this data to measure the real impact of your campaign. To simplify your task, WIHP‘s Meta I/O platform allows you to monitor the ROI of your bidding methods with full transparency on your campaigns and your hotel’s distribution performance on metasearch.   Conclusion In conclusion, the best strategy is to make your establishment appear on all metasearch, which have become essential for your online marketing. This will increase your share of direct sales in your turnover.  Customers who search for you on metasearch are already interested in your hotel and are therefore more qualified and quicker to book with you. Your presence on metasearch engines is essential to increase your revenue.  You can combine (or not) bidding methods depending on your business to reach your goals. At WIHP, we help you implement the most effective metasearch strategies to increase your direct marketing share.  We are here to listen to your direct distribution projects, contact our team of hotel digital marketing specialists.

Your hotel can appear in the top positions of your city and destination search results. This sales channel allows you to increase the visibility and popularity of your hotel on generic searches.What are Google Property Promotion Ads? Google Property Promotion Ads is an ad format created to make your hotel more popular. The goal is for your hotel to appear on a generic search query at the beginning of the traveler’s buying journey. A Property Promotion Ads campaign will make your hotel appear on strategic locations of the Google search results page (SERP), but also on a specific geographical area, your destination. Indeed, appear in a privileged position when travelers search for a hotel online in your city, such as “Hotel New York”, “Hotel in Berlin”.    Thanks to a Property Promotion Ads campaign, adverts promoting your hotel will appear at the top of Google Search engine results, on Google Maps or on Google Hotel Search. Finally, note that there is a difference between a metasearch campaign such as Google Property Promotion Ads and metasearch campaigns on your hotel page on price comparison sites such as Google Hotel Ads, Tripadvisor, Trivago or Kayak.Ad types such as Google PPA, Tripadvisor Sponsored Placements or Trivago Sponsored Listing will boost the visibility of your establishment. You will reach travelers on their generic searches by destination. These are travelers who know where they are staying and want to choose the right accommodation.  The metasearch campaigns on your Google Hotels Ads page, Tripadvisor and on any other meta engine, will reach Internet users who search for your hotel name and are interested in your establishment. The objective is not so much pure visibility as the transformation of a prospect into a customer who books directly on your hotel website.  In short, these two types of metasearch campaigns are complementary. We recommend launching both kinds of digital distribution strategies on metasearch in order to increase your direct bookings all the more.   Where does my hotel appear with Property Promotion Ads?  Your ad placement will appear at the top of the search results in the following three spots on Google.  Google search results Your ad will appear in a preferred position on the Google search results page, only on mobile.  When a traveler searches for hotels in a given geographic area on Google Search (for example, “hotels Bangkok”), a carousel may appear at the top of the results page featuring sponsored hotel ads. Google Travel : Hotel search results When a traveler searches for a hotel on Google Hotel Search, still at a destination, Property Promotion Ads may appear in the search results or in the “Price” tab of a hotel listing.  These ad placements are identifiable by the fact that they are labeled “Ad”. When the Internet user clicks on your ad, they access the “Sponsored” tab. This tab is exclusive to your ad in order to promote your establishment and your offer. Ads on Google Travel / Hotel search results“Sponsored” and “Prices” tabsFinally, your ad can appear at the bottom of the “Prices” tab of a competitor’s metasearch page. Google makes a selection of recommendations based on ads of establishments similar to the hotel searched by the user.  Bottom of the “Prices” tab on Google Hotel SearchGoogle Maps When a traveler searches for a hotel in your city, your ad may appear in first or second position depending on your bidding. When the traveler interested in your hotel clicks on your sponsored offer, your Business Profile will appear (see second image below). Property Promotion Ads on Google MapsWhy invest in a Property Promotion Ads campaign? The main advantage of Google PPA is to amplify the visibility of your property on different Google channels. You increase your chances of attracting customers who know their destination but are still looking for accommodation. This type of sponsored ads allows you to increase your direct bookings, and complements other types of advertising campaigns and metasearch presence.In addition, your sponsored offer is exclusive in the search results, meaning that your hotel prices are not in competition with other advertisers. When a user clicks on your ad, only your official rates appear and not those of other distributors, which brings great visibility to your hotel. Exclusive sponsored offerFinally, this solution allows you to promote your establishment: During low occupancy periods. During its launch, to make it known. After renovations or after adding services (spa, restaurant, partnership with nearby activities). Depending on an event in your region that will increase the relevance and attractiveness of your hotel. When you make an exceptional offer on your rates or services, for a limited time. If it is a hotel that is part of a hotel group, to increase the occupancy rate in a specific geographical area.What are the bidding methods for a Google Property Promotion Ads campaign? The bidding methods available on Google Property Promotion Ads are identical to those of the meta search campaigns of Google Hotel Ads:CPA (cost per acquisition) (commission per conversion): you define a fixed percentage of the room rate that you pay each time a traveler books through your ad. This guarantees your distribution cost because you only pay if there is a reservation.  Commission on guest stay: you pay a percentage of the room rate only for guests who have stayed at your property. This bidding method eliminates possible cancellation fees and further secures your distribution costs. Manual CPC (cost per click): you set a fixed amount that you pay each time a traveler clicks on your ad.  CPC percentage: you define a percentage of the room price per night that you pay when a traveler clicks on your ad. Enhanced CPC: used with the previous two CPC bidding methods, this strategy helps you get more conversions by automatically adjusting your manual bidding for clicks that are likely to result in a booking on your website, while trying to keep the same ROAS as with manual CPC.Commission bidding methods are automated, easier to manage and guarantee your distribution costs. Campaigns need to run for at least two weeks before you can assess the results while the algorithm adjusts.  However, manual CPC bidding methods allow for a higher level of granularity in managing your campaigns. With CPC, you can also use bid multipliers to automatically increase or decrease the fixed CPM bid for an element based on different criteria. For example, if mobile performs better for you, you can target both mobile and desktop devices, and then set a bidding multiplier to increase    the bid for mobile devices without using two different bidding lines. You can apply bidding multipliers based on market, demographics, audience lists, device type, apps and urls, public exchanges and private bids. Furthermore, you can adjust any bidding method in your campaigns based on the traveler’s geographical area, device type, length of stay, day of arrival, date type, booking period and audience list. It’s up to you to define the strategy that best suits your business and goals. You can combine manual strategies with automated models to find the right balance of performance to achieve your goals. Finally, our Meta I/O platform allows you to manage your Google Property Promotion Ads and any other metasearch campaign from a single interface. Launch your campaigns, adjust your bidding methods and track your performance from one simple and efficient environment. You can ask our team to help you manage your campaigns if you wish and you will always benefit from our customer service team. Conclusion To summarize, Google Property Promotion Ads campaigns allow you to increase your direct bookings by boosting your visibility towards an audience of travelers who are looking for an accommodation in your destination. The goal is to display your hotel in strategic placements on Google in order to reach Internet users who know their place of stay but haven’t chosen their hotel yet. You encourage them to book directly on your hotel website and not with your competitors or via an OTA. It is up to you to choose the best strategy according to the digital goals you have set beforehand. You can launch Google Property Promotion Ads campaigns with Meta I/O, our metasearch management solution. To learn more about this type of campaign, please contact our team.